The Unknown
by The Wind Whispers To Me
Summary: There are many things that people do not know about Tony Stark. So, when SHIELD gets an unexpected package of four DVD's containing information about Stark, Director Fury and the Avengers sit down and watch. Tony/Pepper. Iron Man
1. Prologue

**AN: Doing something like this has been playing in my mind for a couple of years now and so, after reading There's Always A Catch by Karma Rue Lovegood Everdeen, I have finally sat down and just started typing random things, slowly making it into a working story.**

**Of course with it being an 'Avengers watch Iron Man,' there will be major spoilers. I decided I wanted to see where it would go if Tony was married throughout the movies, so he and Pepper are married. I do not know where this is going to go or if it will go anywhere.**

**YOU HAVE FAIR WARNING! IF YOU DO NOT LIKE, DO NOT READ! I WILL NOT STAND FOR ANY FLAMS, BUT I WILL READ AND TRY TO FIX ANY MISTAKES. JUST BE NICE!**

**Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own any of the Avengers. They all belong to Marvel. I do, however, own the plot line and my awesome horse, KONA!**

* * *

Steve slammed his hand down on the huge table in the middle of SHIELD's main conference room.

"I do not trust Stark!" he exclaimed. "If it is only Iron Man that we need, why is Stark here? Couldn't SHIELD just confiscate the suit from him and train someone else to be Iron Man?"

Natasha sighed and slouched down in her chair a little. "It doesn't work that way, and believe me, if it did, I would have Stark out of here as soon as possible."

"Why not?" demanded the super soldier.

"Well, Stark…he built in a self-destruct system if anyone, but he and Pepper try and take it, well...it blows up."

Slumping down into his chair, Steve let out a sharp breath of air.

Thor sat down in one of the chairs opposite of the assassin. "And what are we to do about it?" he asked, arms crossed over his massive chest. Stark was fine to him. A bit rude and out there, but he reminded him of his warrior friends back home in Asgard.

Bruce was looking at the screen that held the image of Loki, rubbing his forehead trying to tune out the argument going on behind him.

Steve was about to answer when the door slammed open and in walked Fury in all his pirate-y goodness. In his hand was what looked like four DVD boxes?

Natasha stood up from her chair. "Sir?"

"Sit down, Agent Romanov," he said as he placed the four boxes on the table at the head and spread them out.

Looking up at the Captain, he said, "You want to know about Stark?" Steve nodded. "Well, so do I. We've never had much on Stark and I know that's because he deletes all the information we get on him and his wife before we can even take a look at it." Fury held up one of the slim boxes. "We received these yesterday. All day they were undergoing test to see if they meant any harm, but what we did find out was that they are movies about Tony Stark. These will tell us his secrets."

Bruce did not like that. Tony was a good man; he just came off as an asshole. It was his armor beneath the armor.

With a closer look at the cover, you could see the words Iron Man printed across it.

Fury walked over to the large screen sitting against the walk and slipped the disc in the HD DVD player.

Bruce decided that he might as well sit down like everyone else.


	2. Afghanistan

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with the Marvel universe, only the plot line and my horse!**

* * *

_A vast desert area with a beautiful back drop of mountains slowly appeared on the screen. The song AC/DC, Back in Black blasted through the speakers._

Everyone the in the room rolled their eyes. Of course it was AD/DC; Tony lived and breathed old rock.

_The words Kunar Province, Afghanistan appeared on-screen._

"Isn't that where Tony went missing?" asked Bruce, looking around the room.

"Yes," grunted Fury.

Steve had a confused look on his face. "Stark went missing?"

"Yes," said Natasha. "You were still on ice."

Steve hummed and nodded his head.

Thor just looked at the others confused and shrugged his shoulders.

_Inside the Humvee in the middle of the group was an old radio playing AC/DC. The soldiers in the vehicle seemed nervous._

"Why are your world's warriors so nervous?" asked Thor in his booming voice.

Fury did not say nor do anything, only continued to look at the paused screen.

The thunder God's team mates just shrugged their shoulders. They didn't know.

_A hand holding a glass of some sort of drink appeared. The view moved up and focused on a young soldier beside the hand._

_It switched over. There was Tony Stark sitting in an expensive looking suit and sunglasses._

Steve scoffed as he thought back to the time that he had been in a military vehicle. They were certainly _not_ quiet.

"_I feel like you're driving me to a court-martial," Tony said. "This is crazy. What did I do? I feel like you're going to pull over and snuff me." The young soldier shrugged his shoulders slightly, looking uncomfortable. "What, you're not allowed to talk?" Tony looked over at the young soldier beside him. "Hey, Forrest!"_

"He shouldn't be talking to a soldier like that," huffed Steve.

Fury scuffed, "This is Tony Stark we're talking about."

"_We can talk, sir," responded the young soldier._

"_Oh, I see. So it's personal?"_

"_No, you intimidate them," said a woman's from the drivers' seat._

"A woman warrior!" exclaimed Thor who shot to his feet. He had a huge smile splitting across his face. "I have yet to see another warrior woman other than our dear Widow of the Black!"

Natasha smiled a smile that you could never see or know was there, but it was a smile none the less.

"_Good God, you're a woman. I honestly…I couldn't have called that. I mean, I'd apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first."_

_The two male soldiers were trying to repress their grins._

"_I'm an airman," responded the woman._

"_Well, you have, actually, excellent bone structure, there."_

Steve raised an eyebrow. "Isn't Tony married?" a hint of discuss was held within his voice.

"Yes," answered a gruff Fury.

"So, not only is he an ass, but he cheats on his wife too?" Steve asked, crossing his arms.

"Well," said Natasha, leaning forward. "Tony has never cheated on Pepper, the media just makes that up to create scandals. He does, however, look at other women now and then, but, I mean, what man doesn't." She had to defend Stark of never cheating on his wife, mainly because she was actually friends with Pepper and Pepper was her only friend. "Hell, it's not like us woman don't look at other men too."

"_I'm having a hard time not looking at you now."_

'Oh, yes,' thought Steve. 'I completely believe he does cheat on his wife.'

"_Is that weird?" The soldier and airman were trying to hold in their laughs. "Come on, it's okay, laugh!"_

_The soldier in the front seat tossed his hand up for a sec. "Sir, I – I have a question to ask."_

"_Yes, please."_

"_Is it true you went 12 for 12 with last year's _Maxim_ cover models?"_

Steve glared at the Tony on the screen.

"I thought you said Stark didn't cheat," he shot, looking over at the assassin two seats away from him.

Natasha rolled her eyes at the 'old fashioned' man to her right. "Just wait," she said, getting a little ticked off

"_That is an excellent question," he said, taking off his sunglasses._

"_Yes and no. March and I had a scheduling conflict, but fortunately, the Christmas cover was twins" _

Once again the super soldier looked over to the master assassin. "Doesn't cheat?"

Natasha just sent him her famous glare.

"- _f__ive years ago, before I got together with Pep."_

"Oh," Steve said shortly.

Natasha smirked.

_There were smirks and small chuckles around the Humvee._

"_Anything else?" asked Tony. _

_The soldier beside him raised his hand._

_Tony gave the young man a weird look. "You're kidding me with the hand up, right?"_

_He put his hand down and asked, "Is it cool if I take a picture with you?"_

"_Yes. It's very cool."_

"Well," said Bruce, making everyone – yes, even Fury – jump. He had been rather quite. "That was nice of him." Bruce had a small, satisfied smile on his face. Their reactions had been funny.

_The soldier reached into one of his many pockets and pulled out a camera. He handed it to the man in the front._

"_All right," said the soldier in the front as he took the camera from the younger man._

_The soldier and the billionaire leaned in for the picture._

"_I don't want to see this on your MySpace page." The soldier put up a peace sign. "Please, no gang signs."_

_He put his hand down._

_Tony turned to him. "No, throw it up. I'm kidding," he said._

"_Yeah, peace. I love peace. I'd be out of a job with peace."_

"What does Friend Stark mean?" Thor asked in his normal, booming voice.

"Tony use to make weapons," answered Bruce.

Thor scrunched his eyebrows together. "And he does not anymore?" he asked.

Bruce nodded. "Well, unless you count the Iron Man suit a weapon, then no."

"_Come on," said the man beside Tony. "Hurry up." The soldier in the front was playing around with the camera. "Just click it. Don't change any settings. Just click it."_

_All of a sudden, the vehicle in front of them exploded._

Everyone in the room gasped at the sight.

_There was a yelp from the two in the front. Tony seemed to be in shock at what he had just seen._

"_What's going on?" asked a wide eyed Tony._

"_Contact left," screamed the woman._

"_What have we got?" yelled the billionaire._

_The woman kicked open her door and was shot down as soon as it was open._

Another gasp rang around the room.

"_Jimmy," yelled the older soldier, "stay with Stark!"_

"_Stay down!" shouted Jimmy as he placed a hand on Tony's shoulder and pushed him down._

"_Yeah," Stark gasped._

_The older soldier creeped out of the Humvee and place his gun over the hood of the vehicle._

_He got shot with something and slammed into the widow, cracking it._

_Tony shot up in his seat, hand flying to his chest as he gasped._

Steve was working on his lip. He may not like Stark, but he was still a human being, a civilian, a citizen of America and as Captain America, he stood for the citizens.

"_Son of a bitch!" yelled Jimmy, readying his gun. He quickly pushed open the door and jumped out._

_Tony held out a hand in his direction. "Wait, wait, wait!" he shouted. "Give me a gun!"_

_Jimmy shouted, "Stay here!" through the window of the Humvee. He and the side of the vehicle had a bunch of holes blown into them._

_Tony cringed again._

So did everyone else.

"Good, God," whispered Bruce. He was already shocked at what Tony had really been through.

_With his ears ringing, he looked around in shock of what was going on._

_Outside of the Humvee a bomb was tossed, hitting some of the American soldiers._

_Tony jumped out of the Humvee._

"No!" shouted the Avengers.

"You idiot!" hissed the Black Widow.

"He's in shock," claimed Bruce.

"I know that," seethed the woman. "It was just really stupid!"

_A small bomb flew right past Tony._

More gasped came from the mouths of his team mates.

_Tony ran away from the commotion, missiles and bullets flying all around him. He quickly jumped behind a rock and pulled out his phone, clicking away at it furiously._

The people in the room jumped – even Fury – when a bomb landed beside Stark.

_Tony looked over at it and gaped when he saw the words _STARK INDUSTRIES_ printed on the side._

"Run!" yelled Bruce, hands gripping the sides of his chair hard. His plus was racing and it was showing itself through the green tint he had to his skin.

Everyone looked at the Doctor wearily, hopping to God that he did not lose it.

_Tony climbed to his feet as fast as he could._

_The bomb went off and blew him backward._

There was a deep inhale of breaths throughout the room.

_Tony slammed into the ground and looked around, dazed._

There was a ringing sound through the speakers of the TV that everyone was sure was what Tony was hearing.

_Red blood started to appear through Tony's shirt._

_He looked down at his chest. Slipping a hand between the buttons of his shirt, he popped it off. Underneath it was a red stained bullet proof vest._

_Tony gently lied his head back down and the screen went white._

Everyone was tense.

Banner let out a breath that he didn't realize he had been holding. He like Tony, a lot. Tony had to be the only person not scared of the other guy.

"If I didn't know better," said the doctor. "I would say that Tony just died."

_Slowly, something that looked like mesh or something came into view along with the sounds of people talking in a foreign language._

_Suddenly the mesh thing was pulled off of Tony's head, blinding him when the light hit his eyes. There were cuts all over his face and around him were men with guns and a video camera._

"He was taken hostage?" Steve asked quietly.

"Yes," said Fury a little softer than normal.

_The screen turned black and with the sound of metal slamming down on metal, the words _IRON MAN_ appeared._

* * *

**AN: Thank you to all the people who followed, favorite and reviewed. That was amazing!**

**The only reason I had this chapter up so soon was because I already had it partly written, but don't worry, I will try and update every week. I'm going to be keeping the chapters relatively short due to wanting to update and school.**


	3. Las Vegas

**IMPORTANT AN FOR THE PEOPLE THAT DID READ MY PREVIOUS CHAPTER 3 (THE ONE WITH THE WHOLE AVENGERS SCENE OF THE ATTACK ON THE HELICARRIER)**

**Okay, so many people are confused about the last chapter (that I just deleted) and I totally get that. **

**It was **_**not**_** the next chapter about them watching the movie (that's this one). It was, however, intended to be the next chapter of this story as an introduction to Clint aka Hawkeye, but it clearly did not work out and I apologize for that. **

**As I had originally placed this story before the attack on the helicarrier, I wanted to do a small intro thing for Clint, but then I don't know what the hell really happened, it was late and I really wanted to post another chapter because I wouldn't be able to post one at all for the weekend due to work. I, for one, did not have the heart to kill off Coulson (he's too awesome) and two, I wanted Thor and Bruce to stay in the story.**

**I hope this clears up any confusion. This chapter is a complete rewrite of the first chapter three that I had posted and it does contain the group watching Iron Man.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Marvel, just the plot line and my horse.**

* * *

_**Recap**_

_The screen turned black and with the sound of metal clashing down on metal, the words _IRON MAN _appeared._

* * *

There loud bang and cursing came from behind the group.

They reacted violently, whipping around, guns and hammer at the ready.

Natasha faltered slightly, but not much, once she got a clear view of who it was.

It was Clint, sitting there on the floor, looking as confused as could be. Once spotting them, he leaped up from his place on the floor and quickly reached behind him to grab for his bow and arrows, only to find that they were missing.

Natasha was the first to react and, as quickly as could be, slamming Clint down on the floor, making him bash his head down on it.

"Natasha?" he moaned, dazed and even more confused, but the master spy was not convinced and punched him hard in the head.

The other three in the room that were a part of the Avengers Initiative stared at the woman dumbfounded and slightly scared.

"What?"

"Nothing," answered Bruce for the three quickly, shaking his head, "nothing at all."

She glared at them. "That's what I thought."

* * *

Clint woke up chained to a beam in the conference room panting. He looked around confused about what was going on, especially when he saw Fury, Thor, Bruce, Steve and Natasha sitting at the large table looking as if they had been waiting on him. The last thing he remembered was…was…Natasha knocking him out?

His eyes grew wide as his memories of his time under Loki's control came rushing back to him. The guilt rapidly settled in.

"Oh, God," he whispered, his head down. He couldn't believe what had happened, what he had done!

Natasha stood up from her spot at the table and quickly walked over to her partner.

"Clint," she asked, placing a hand on his right shoulder. "How do you feel." She was being uncommonly nice and concerned.

Clint glared up at her, spitting out, "How do you think I feel? I feel like I just got mind raped!"

Everyone flinched, even Fury, although it was hardly noticeable, just as Natasha's was.

"How'd you get him out?" asked Clint, looking at his long-time partner.

"Cognitive recalibration," she answered. "I hit you really hard in the head."

Clint slowly nodded and refused to look at them any longer. Instead, he settled for once again looking around the room.

"Iron Man," he said softly. He turned to Natasha. "Isn't that Stark?" he asked.

"Yes," replied Natasha.

Clint's brow frowned. "What are you watching that has to do with Stark?"

Fury stood up from his place, reclaiming his place of the person in charge. Quickly and efficiently, he explained everything that had happened since he had been compromised and what was going on in the film.

"Soo," dragged out the archer after getting his head wrapped around the fact that Tony was held in the custody of terrorists, "are you going to unchain me so we can keep on watching."

Fury nodded his head in the direction of Natasha. She complied, unlocked the chain and offered her arm in a truce and a "please, forgive me for hiting you so hard."

Clint took her arm, having already forgiven her long before he had even woken up. Together, they walked over to the large table and sat down side by side.

With that, the movie continued.

"_Tony Stark," said a big presenting voice on the black screen._

_The screen lit up showing a crowd of formal looking people and a picture of Tony in a powerful pose on the big screen at the front of the room._

_At the bottom of the TV screen were the words, "Las Vegas, 36 Hours Earlier."_

"So, we're watching what happened before his kidnapping?" Clint asked, stretching out in his rather comfy chair.

"Seems so," said the previously quite doctor in a small voice.

"_Visionary. Genius. American patriot."_

Steve snorted. He didn't really believe that crap about Tony being an American patriot, after all the man was to self-centered for one's own good. Or so he thought.

"_Even from an early age," a picture of a very young and rather cute, Tony came up, "the son of legendary weapons developer Howard Stark"_

Thor was still confused on the, "Tony use to make weapons" thing. He thought he was the only name in "clean energy." Whatever that was.

_A picture of Howard standing in front of some blue prints came up. "quickly stole the spotlight with his brilliant and unique mind. At age four, he built his first circuit board."_

"That young?" whispered a shocked Steve. Everyone knew Tony was brilliant, but he didn't know just _how_ brilliant the son of his old friend, Howard really was.

"Yep," said Clint, popping his 'p.'

"I do not understand," said Thor, shocking everyone, he seemed to be rather quite throughout the whole thing, so quite that they were beginning to forget that the huge god of Thunder was actually there. It was a great feat indeed.

Bruce hummed and hawed before answering the question to the best of his abilities. "Well," he started slowly, "just think of it as toddler in your Asgardian years, so that would be about two to three hundred, yes?"

Thor gapped at the doctor. "That young!" he exclaimed, completely baffled.

"Yes," replied the doctor, looking completely serious.

Everyone was amused at the god's reaction, knowing that, if Tony was there, he would feel honored in a way, that he had baffled the Asgardian.

_A picture of Tony surrounded by computers was switch to one of him and his father sitting on a motorcycle._

"_At age six, his first engine." The next picture was that of a teenaged Tony standing next to a drawing of a blue print for a robot of sorts and then beside the completely built version of the blue print. "And at 17, he graduated summa cum laude from MIT."_

Everyone in the room was baffled at Tony's accomplishments at such a young age, even the ones who had previously known about Tony.

"_Then, the passing of a titan."_

Steve sucked in a quiet, sharp breath of air. "Howard died in a car crash?" he whispered as if he was going to crack if he spoke any louder.

"Yes," replied the always gruff Fury.

Steve lowered his head in morning of his lost friend.

Bruce placed a gentle, calming hand on the shoulder of the super soldier.

"_Howard Stark's lifelong and ally, Obadiah Stane,"_

Steve's brow frowned and said, "Who is Obadiah Stane?" at the same time Thor boomed, "Who is this Stane fellow?"

Natasha answered both their questions, "Stane was Howard's and then Tony Stark's business partner up until he was in a plane crash and did not survive." She didn't want to spoil the movie for them.

_There was a picture of the two men in their younger years and then one of Stane standing above a globe in a_ Newsweek _magazine, "steps in to help fill the gap left by the legendary founder, until, at age 21, the prodigal son returns and is anointed the new CEO of Stark Industries." Tony Stark and Obadiah Stane standing on the cover of a _Forbes_ magazine with Stark in front looking over his shoulder toward Stane behind him as Stane looked over his shoulder to Tony in front._

_The image moved away from the big screen on TV to that of the crowd of people sitting there watching. It was focused on Stane._

"_With the keys to the kingdom, Tony ushers in a new era for his father's legacy, creating smarter weapons, advanced robotics, satellite targeting." It showed an image of the things mentioned._

_Tony was once again shown of the cover of a magazine._

"_Today, Tony Stark has changed the face of the weapons industry by ensuring freedom and protecting America and her interests around the globe." Tony stood in a picture surround by big jets._

_Clapping was heard again._

Steve blinked a couple of times.

Fury laughed, startling the others. "Pretty big stuff, yeah?" he said.

"Yes, sir," said the captain. He had to admit that even though he hated Stark or maybe just really, _really_ disliked Stark, his accomplishments were amazing. He couldn't, like the others, get over how much he had accomplished.

"_As liaison to Stark Industries," said a man up at the podium, "I've had the unique privilege of serving with a real patriot. He is my friend and he is my great mentor."_

"He's not going to show up, is he?" said a smirking Hawkeye.

Natasha laughed lightly. It could almost be called a giggle, but don't you dare say that, she'll beat the crap out of you.

"_Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present this year's Apogee Award to Mr. Tony Stark."_

"Very prestigious award," said Bruce slowly nodding his head, then shaking it. If Tony was anything then as he is now, Bruce doubted that he would really want the award and would probably just hand it off to someone.

_The clapping and music began, but Tony did not walk up the steps of the stage._

"_Tony?" called out the man now holding the Apogee Award in his hand. He had a pressed smile on his face._

_It switched over to Stane who sat there shaking his head._

_Stane got up and walk up to the stage, accepting the award for Tony._

"_Thank you, Colonel."_

_The Colonel handed the award the Stane, saying, "Thanks for the save."_

_Stane turned to face the crowd. He held up the award. "Ah," he said. "This is beautiful. Thank you. Thank you all very much. This is wonderful."_

Natasha raised an eyebrow at the man's antics.

"_Well, I'm not Tony Stark."_

"That's the understatement of the year," snorted a laughing Clint.

_Laughter ran through the hall._

"_But if I were Tony, I would tell you how honored I feel and what a joy it is to receive this very prestigious award." Obadiah keep looking at the award, he could hardly take his eyes off of it._

"_Tony, you know…" he said. "The best thing about Tony is also the worst thing. He's always working."_

"No he's not," snorted everyone around the table.

"_Hup," yelled Tony, rolling the dice on a poker table. Pepper was standing beside him._

Natasha eyebrows shot to the roof. "Pepper's there and Tony's still not at the award ceremony?" she was really surprised.

"_Work it! Come on!" he exclaimed. Pepper was cheering beside him holding an empty glass._

"Oh," said a now understanding Natasha.

"What?" Clint asked.

"He gave her alcohol. That and I guess he bribed her too."

_Tony turned to Pep and pulled her close. She placed her empty glass on the rim on the poker table and raised her hands up to rest then against Tony's chest._

"_We should just stay till the morning," Tony said to her._

_Pepper smiled, but shook her head no. "We got an award ceremony to go to and you have to go to Afghanistan tomorrow."_

_Tony pouted at her, but leaned in for a kiss._

"_You are unbelievable," said a voice from behind the two._

_They looked over to the Colonel._

"_Oh, no!" said Tony. "Did they rope you into this?"_

_Pepper gasped and quickly rolled up the sleeve of Tony's shirt to look at his expensive watch. _

"_Crap!" she exclaimed at the same time the Colonel said, "Nobody roped me into anything!"_

"_Oh, God," said Pepper, guilt on her face. "I'm sorry Rhodey. I was supposed to be watching the time!"_

"Oh," said Clint, "does she mean James Rhodes from the weapons development sector in the military?"

"Yeah," said the woman beside him. "That's him."

"Ha!" laughed Clint. "No wonder why he stole one of the Iron Man suits. I would be pissed if I had to be Stark's friend too."

"_I'm so sorry," said Tony._

"No he's not!" exclaimed the population of the room

_Rhodey turned to Pepper. "It's not your fault for him not being there," he said. Pepper nodded with a slight smile and sighed._

"Poor, Pepper," muttered Bruce. "She never gets away from the job of taking care of Tony, does she?"

Natasha and Fury shook their heads.

"It's a full time job, plus the addition of her taking over as his PA, it's even more," explained the Director.

_The Colonel turned back to Tony. "They told me that if I presented you with an award you'd be deeply honored."_

"_Of course I'd be deeply honored. And it's you, that's great. So when do we do it?"_

_Pepper grabbed an elbow into Tony's side, making him flinch away from her. "It's already over, Tony," she hissed._

_Colonel Rhodes handed Tony the award, "Its right here." _

_Tony turned back to the table, an arm still around Pepper's waist. "Ah, yeah, one more round!" he exclaimed._

"_Here you go."_

_Tony looked down at the award in his friends' hand. "There it is," he said. "That was easy."_

_Tony took the award. "I'm so sorry," he said._

"_Yeah," said Rhodey, "it's okay."_

Many raised their eyebrows, thinking that Rhodey did not detect any of Tony's _very_ subtle sarcasm. It took the majority a moment to finally realize that the Colonel was being sarcastic himself.

"_Wow!" said Tony. "Would you look at that? That's something else." He handed it off to Pepper and turned back to the poker table. "I don't have any of those floating around."_

_He pushed in a small portion of his large pill of chips onto the bidding table._

"_We're gonna let it ride!" he exclaimed. He cleared his throat and turned to his wife._

"_Give me a hand, will you darling?" he placed his hand in front of her face. "Give me a little something-something."_

_Pepper smiled at Tony, rolled her eyes and seductively blew on his head._

_He quickly ducked in for a kiss and then brought his hand up to Rhodey's face. "Okay," he said, "you, too."_

"_I don't blow on a man's dice," said the Colonel, shaking his head._

"_Come on, honey bear," said the billionaire. Rhodey slapped the man's dice away from him._

"_There it is!" exclaimed Tony. "Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes rolls! And…"_

"_Two craps. Line away," said the poker table person._

_The Colonel shrugged. "That's what happens."_

Clint, Steve, Natasha and Thor all laughed at Tony's now ruined streak.

"_Worse thing have happened. I think we've gonna be fine," stated Tony matter-of-factly. He turned back to the table. "Color me up, William."_

_The three, Tony, Pepper and Rhodey, were walking through an entrance hall with some of the Stark's body guards._

"_This is where I exit," Rhodey said, shaking hands with Tony._

"_All right," said Tony, his arm still around Pepper._

"_Tomorrow," Rhodey pointed at Tony, "don't be late." _

"I don't think that's possible," said the once quite Fury, rolling his one good eye and folding his arms over his chest.

_Rhodey turned to Pepper. "Don't let him be late."_

"_Yeah, you can count on it," said Tony at the same time Pepper said, "Of course, James."_

"_I'm serious!"_

"_I know, I know," said Tony as Rhodey walked in the direction that he needed to go._

_Tony took his arm off of Pepper's waist and walked up to a man dressed as a Caesar, saying, "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's." He quoted it perfectly. "There you go." The genius billionaire handed the man the Apogee Award and walked off._

Everyone rolled their eyes. _'Of course'_ they thought, _'he wouldn't be Tony if he didn't do something like that.'_

_Pepper stayed behind for a second, smiled at the man and took back the award, saying, "Sorry."_

_Outside, they – the bodyguards, Tony and Pepper – walked up to a slick, black car. One of the bodyguards opened the door for the Stark's._

_Tony gently help Pepper into the vehicle and was about to get into the car himself when a woman's voice called after him from behind._

"_Mr. Stark! Excuse me, Mr. Stark!"_

_A couple of bodyguards stepped in front of the blonde woman, halting her from continuing on her path towards the genius._

"_Christine Everhart, _Vanity Fair_ magazine," she said. "Can I ask you a couple of questions?"_

_Tony looked toward the head bodyguard, back still to the reporter._

"_She's cute," said the man._

Steve looked disgusted. "He's married and still he can only be bothered if their cute!?" he exclaimed. Pepper seemed like a swell dame and Tony just seemed to not get that.

"_She's all right?"_

_Tony looked down at Pepper. "I'll be one moment," he told her. Pepper nodded, tightly._

Natasha sighed. She didn't really understand what the hell that woman saw in that ass, but she must have seen something absolutely amazing to still be there. After all, Pepper was the type of woman who didn't need a man to survive. She was a tough one, smart.

"_Hi," said Tony, turning around to face Christine._

"_Hi."_

"_Yeah. Okay, go."_

"_It's okay? You've been called the da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?" asked the reporter._

"_Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint."_

"_And what do you say to your other nickname?" Her smile disappeared. "The Merchant of Death?"_

Thor looked and felt, very confused. "Friend Tony traded death? I do not understand."

Fury sighed at having to explain something so simple once more. "The title 'The Merchant of Death,' came about because of his weapons. All the weapons Stark has ever came up with can cause mass destruction."

Thor nodded, slightly stunned.

"_That's not bad."_

"Not bad?" explained a questioning Steve.

"_Let me guess," continued Tony. "Berkeley?"_

"_Brown, actually."_

"_Well, Ms. Brown, it's an imperfect world, but it's the only one we've got. I guarantee you, the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll start making bricks and beams for baby hospitals."_

"_Rehearse that much?"_

"_Every night in front of the mirror before bedtime."_

"_I'd like to see that first-hand," she flirted._

Bruce scoff. "Everyone knows that Tony's married and yet women still make passes at him even though he never shows interest in them."

_Tony ignored the attempt she made towards him._

"_I'm going to give you a serious answer," said Tony, placing his hands lightly on his hips. "My old man had a philosophy, "Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy."_

"Was it really?" Steve asked, frowning. Howard sure wasn't like he remembered.

"_That's a great line coming from the guy selling the sticks."_

Clint chortled, "It's a wonder that the bitch can stand up against Stark."

"Yeah," laughed Natasha. The two really loosened up around one another.

"_My father helped defeat the Nazis. He worked on the Manhattan Project. A lot of people, including your professors at Brown, would call that being a hero."_

"_And a lot of people would also call that war profiteering."_

"Ouch," said Clint, "She's got him there."

_Tony whipped off his sunglasses. "Tell me," he said, very serious and slightly pissed, "do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs, military funding, honey."_

"_Wow," she said. "You ever lose an hour of sleep your whole life?"_

"_I'm always prepared to lose a few with Pep," he said before walking away, back to the car waiting on him, slipped in and quickly grabbed Pepper into a passionate kiss._

The people in the room felt like they were invading the couple and they really were. After all, they were _watching_ a _movie _on Tony Stark.

_Tony and Pepper fell onto a bed that was presumably their bedroom and basically began to have sex on-screen._

Clint hooted and whistled, Thor cheered, Natasha smirked, Steve blushed and looked away, Bruce looked in another direction, not wanting to further invade his fast friends' privacy even more so, and Fury just sat their unfeeling like.

_They fell off the bed._

* * *

**AN: And so, this is the new and improved chapter 3.**

**Hoped you liked it!**


	4. Road to the Cave

**AN: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all of you who have reviewed. I really just needed someone to tell me I was doing a good job and to just roll with it. See were the flow takes me.**

**Anyway, I really want to dedicate this chapter to seven who review almost right away.**

**Thank you so much to:**

**jack2724 – for having faith in me!**

**darksideofnight – with your suggestion to just be gradual!**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books – with basically telling me to just go with what **_**I **_**want and to make it realistic!**

**amac1688 – your suggestion of waiting until 3am and being coffee deprived when typing made me laughed because I did that for my grade 10 English essay. I got an A on it!**

**SithStalker234 – for just saying that you're glad that I am continuing on with the story and not discontinuing it. **

**Myth Princess - for the ideas of how to make the characters interact more.**

**Unfortunately, the other two who wrote to me were guests and I don't have a penname for them, but I would like to thank Guest 1 who wrote saying that it doesn't what other people think and the three suggestions he/she made**

**1) Abandon it (and start again)**

**2) ****Fight it and keep forcing way planned on going**

**3) Just on with it**

**I chose to just go with what I want. Thank you.**

**And the 2****nd**** Guest who wrote that he/she thinks the story is great and a little Steve bushings good. Always did need to be taken off his high horse.**

**Also, to those who have been reading this for a while, I have changed it to include Iron Man 3 so there are four movies for them to watch.**

**ON WITH THE STORY!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Marvel, only the plot line and my horse.**

* * *

_Pepper was lying in the huge bed basically completely bare except for the sheet tossed over her bottom._

Steve blushed again.

_A light flicked on._

"_Good morning, Mrs. Stark. It's 7:00 a.m."_

"That's Jarvis," explained Natasha to her confused team mates.

_Pepper woke with a start, but seemed to quickly realize who it was. She stretched and slowly stood up from the bed, taking the light sheet with her._

"_The weather in Malibu is 72 degrees with scattered clouds." The windows flicked opened and screens popped up into view._

Steve, Thor, Bruce and Clint, who had never been in any of Stark's houses, stared in awe at the technology that just the windows possessed. They could not imagine what the rest of the house could do.

"_The surf conditions are fair with waist-to-shoulder high lines. Hide tide will be at 10:52 a.m." Pepper walked over to the window and smile out at it._

_The screen did a back sweep of the magnificent, huge mansion sitting on a cliff overlooking the beautiful blue waters of Malibu, California._

The guys that had never seen Tony's house stared, even the ones that had seen and had been in it looked on. It always got them.

"That. Is. Awesome," breathed out Clint. Beside and around him, everyone nodded.

_Tony was in his work shop playing with a hot rod motor, the music blaring._

Clint shook his head. God, sometimes he wished he was Tony. All those awesome cars, not to mention the girls that threw themselves his way all the time.

"_Give me an exploded view."_

_On the computer screen was the motor that he was working with._

"_The compression in cylinder three appears to be low," said Jarvis. _

Steve and Thor were baffled by the technology Tony possessed. After all, they both come from places/times that do not contain the technology Earth does now-a-days.

"_Log that," said Tony, looking back at his motor._

_Pepper was at the door to the workshop on the phone. She typed in a passcode and muted the music._

"_I'm gonna try again, right now," she said as she walked in. She was dressed in a nice, fitted business suit._

"_Please don't turn down my music."_

"_I'll keep you posted," she said into the phone, ignoring Tony. Taking hold of the file under her arm, she ended the call. _

"_You are supposed to be halfway around the world right now," she said, coming to stand behind him. She placed the folder on the bench of the car Tony was working on and tucked her phone away into a pocket. _

"So," started Steve, eyebrows frowning in what seemed to be his usual reaction to this whole thing, confusion. "Mrs. Stark is Stark's secretary?"

Natasha nodded her head to Steve's question. "In a way, yes, but she's more of a PA."

"PA?" questioned Steve.

"Personal assistant," replied Bruce before he motioned for Natasha to explain further.

Natasha rolled her eyes, but continued. "Anyway, as I was _saying_," she gave a pointed glance to Steve for the interruption. "Pepper first became Tony's PA after catching an accounting problem made by Stark himself."

"Stark made a math mistake!" exclaimed Clint and Bruce, eyebrows shooting to their hairlines.

"Yes," said the ever quiet and gruff Fury.

"Tony caught the mistake himself, but hired Pepper because she was the only one who noticed," continued on Natasha. "Ever since he hired her, she had proven herself to him time and time again until she became the most trusted person in his life. It just so happened that they fell in love and got married. To tell you the truth, no one ever really thought they would after the whole, "Pepper Potts sleeping with her boss and billionaire Tony Stark," fiasco."

Steve, although still confused as hell, nodded, acting like he now knew what the hell Natasha just told him.

Clint and Fury glanced at one another and back to Natasha. Both were wondering what the hell just happened because they were pretty sure that she was just gushing about Tony and Pepper's relationship.

With a shrug, they both turned back to the screen to continue the viewing of the movie.

_Tony looked up at Pepper standing over him as she placed her hands on his shoulders and started to rub them. He groaned and then asked, "Why are you trying to hustle me out of here?" as he turned back to his engine._

_Pepper sighed, "Your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago."_

Everyone in the room who knew anything about Tony Stark rolled their eyes. Never expect Stark to be on time for something that he, himself, did not deem fun or abso-bloody-lutely important.

"_That's funny," said Tony, "I thought with it being my plane and all that it would just wait for me to get there."_

"He's got a point there," said Clint with a shrug of his shoulders. Natasha slugged him "lightly" in the shoulder. "What!" he exclaimed, rubbing his now sore appendage. "What's the point of having your own plane if it left without you?"

_Pepper huffed and picked up the file. "Tony, I need to speak to you about a couple things before I get you out of the door."_

"_I mean, doesn't it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your know plane if it departs before you arrive?" He got up from his knees and sat down on the tier of the car. He wiped the grease off of his hands and pull Pepper up to him._

"_Larry called," she said, ignoring Tony rubbing his hands over her thighs and hips._

Steve blushed and looked away from the intimate touches.

"_He's got another buyer for the Jackson Pollock in the wings. Do you want it? Yes or no."_

"_Is it a good representation of his spring period?"_

"_Um, no. The Springs was actually the neighborhood in East Hampton where he lived and worked –"_

"_So?" Tony shrugged._

_Pepper continued on, choosing to ignore him. "– not "spring" like the season. I think it's a fair example. I think it's incredibly overpriced."_

_Tony stared up at her for a short moment before saying, "I need it. Buy it. Store it."_

"Why would Stark need a painting if he's only going to store it?" asked the Captain.

The guys (and girl, can't forget Natasha!), shrugged. How should they know? The entire reason they were watching this thing was to understand and know more about Stark. He was too much of a wild card, a powerful wild card.

_He got up and started to walk across the workshop._

"_Okay," said Pepper, following after her husband/boss. "That MIT commencement speech…"_

"_Is in June," cut in Tony. "Please, don't harangue me about stuff that's way, way, down…"_

"Kinda have too," muttered a put off Natasha. Thinking back on it, she was so glad that she would never have to work for Stark again. That was hell.

"_Well," countered Pepper, "they're haranguing me, so I'm gonna say yes."_

"_Well," said Tony, picking up something from a counter top and turning back to Pepper, "deflect it and absorb it. Don't transmit it back to me."_

_Pepper continued on. "I need you to sign this before you get on the plane."_

_Tony walked up to Pepper who was holding up the document that needed signing. "What are you trying to get rid of me for? Don't you what to celebrate your birthday together?"_

"He remembered?" gasped an overly dramatic Clint, placing a hand over his heart. "Who would have known?"

Bruce raised an eyebrow and chuckled slightly. "I didn't take Tony as someone to remember dates."

Fury snorted, "He's not."

Bruce shrugged, "It is his wife's birthday. He might want to remember it to stay in her good books with at least one thing."

Natasha shrugged and said, "He probably put it in Jarvis's memory base so he wouldn't forget."

_Pepper looked stunned, her hand that was holding a pen up for him dropped down slightly. "You remembered?"_

_Tony scoffed. "Yeah," he said, pulling her close to him. "Strange right? It's the same day as last year."_

_Pepper smiled up at Tony._

"_But," said Tony, gulping down whatever was in his tiny tea cup. "You'll have to wait for me to get back."_

_He handed Pepper the cup and walked off._

"_What?" gasped Pepper, turning after him._

Bruce laughed. He may have only have known Tony Stark for a short amount of time, but that seemed like a typical thing for him to do.

_Tony Stark smirked at the camera and the scene faded out._

_Rock music started and a sliver car flew on screen hurtling down the road at breakneck speed. A black car followed after it._

_They arrived at a building and plane that both had the _Stark Industries_ logo on it._

_The sliver car pulled in first and up to the red strip of concrete._

"_You're good," said Tony, getting out of his car as another man stepped out of the black one. "I thought I lost you back there."_

Many rolled their eyes and groaned.

"_You did, sir," said the man moving to the back of the car he was driving. "I had to cut across Mulholland." He pulled out some bags and closed the trunk._

"_Ahh!" exclaimed Tony. "I got you. I got you."_

"_What's wrong with you?" questioned Colonel Rhodes from the top of the stairway of the plane._

"_What?" asked Tony walking up to the plane._

"_Three hours."_

_Tony stepped onto the first stair. "I got caught up in…birthday celebrations."_

"_For three hours. For three hours you got me standing here."_

"_Waiting on you now," said Tony, walking past Rhodey and into the plane. "Let's go. Come on."_

_From inside the plane, Tony shouted, "Wheels up! Rock and roll!"_

_The plane was now in the sky as the same rock music from before with the cars continued to play._

_Tony and Rhodes were sitting at a table that was being set by a beautiful blonde woman who was looking at Tony suggestively._

_Although Tony did look, he didn't really pay her any more then needed attention._

_The woman walked away and Tony turned to Rhodey, asking, "What you reading, platypus?"_

Thor looked confused. "I do not understand!" he boomed in his very, _very_ loud voice. "What is this platypus?"

"A platypus is one of Earths creatures," explained Bruce, "and are the only mammals to lay eggs."

"Lay eggs?" said the still confused Thor. He was beginning to wonder if he would ever understand Midguard completely.

"Yeah," said Clint, tossing his arm over the back of Natasha's chair. "Kinda weird, right?"

Thor nodded. Everything about this planet was so weird or different.

"_Nothing," said Rhodey without looking up from his paper._

"_Come on, sour patch," said Tony._

_Rhodey shook his head, still not looking up from his paper. "I'm not sour," he said._

"_Don't be mad."_

"_I told you, I'm not mad. I'm indifferent, okay?"_

Clint and just about everyone else in the room raised their eyebrows.

"Yeah," scoffed the archer. "If he's not mad then I must have terrible aim."

Clint flinched slightly. That comparison was horrible.

"_I said I was sorry."_

_Another woman, this time a brunette, walked up to the two holding a tray with rolled up towels on it. She, just like the woman before her, had a suggestive look on her face as she addressed Tony. "Good morning, Mr. Stark."_

_Rhodey continued, ignoring the woman before them. "You don't need to apologize to me. I'm your man."_

_Tony looked up at the woman. "Hi," he said. "I told him I was sorry, but he…"_

"_I'm just indifferent right now," cut in the Colonel._

"_Hot towel?"_

_Tony reached up and took the towel from the tongs resting in her hands._

"_You don't respect yourself," said Rhodes, "so I know you don't respect me."_

"_I respect you."_

"_I'm just your babysitter. So, when you need your diaper changed…" he reached up for his hot towel and saying, "Thank you," to the blonde woman. Turning back to Stark, he continued, "Let me know and I'll get you a bottle, okay?"_

_Tony turned his head to the woman serving them. "Hey!" he said, whipped his hands on the hot towel. "Heat up the sake, will you?" He turned his head back to Rhodey for a second and said, "Thanks for reminding me."_

"_No," said the Colonel, "I'm not talking…We're not drinking. We're working right now."_

_Tony shrugged his shoulders. "You can't have sashimi without sake."_

"_You are constitutionally incapable of being responsible," said Rhodes._

"_It would be irresponsible not to drink. I'm just talking about a nightcap."_

Clint sat up straight, "Does this mean I can grab a beer!"

"No!" shouted everyone, but Thor. Thor wouldn't mind some mead at all.

_A tray with a sake bottle was placed gently on the table. "Hot sake?" asked the woman._

"_Yes," said Tony, "two, please."_

"_No," said the Colonel. "I'm not drinking. I don't want any."_

Natasha sighed. This would so not work out in Rhodey's favor.

_Tony and Rhodey were sitting on a couch, drinks in hand with loud music blaring._

"_See, that's what I'm talking about," shouted Rhodey over the noise of the music. "When I get up in the morning and I'm putting on my uniform, you know what I recognize?" Tony took a drink, looking over his glass and not at Rhodey. "I see in that mirror that every person that's got this uniform on got my back!"_

"_Oh, boy," groaned Tony looking away from Rhodey again, "here we go."_

_The flight-attendants came dancing on the screen._

"_Hey, you know what?" said Tony, turning and looking over at Rhodey. "I'm not like you. I'm not cut out…"_

"_No, no. you don't have to be like me! But you're more than what you are." _**(AN: Anyone else think that this is a small foreshadowing thing right there? "more than what you are")**

_A pole came up from the ground._

"_Can you excuse me if I'm a bit distracted here?"_

Steve raised his eyebrow, but didn't say anything. He was too disappointed and yet, slightly expected that Stark would do something like that. He could only just hope that the man wouldn't do anything but look. No woman deserved her husband cheating on her.

"_No you can't be distracted right now! Listen to me!"_

_The next scene was at the Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan._

_Stark walked out of his huge private jet to be greeted by army personal of both America and Afghanistan._

"_General," said Tony, shaking hands with the older man._

"_Welcome, Mr. Stark," said the General in friendly greetings. "We look forward to you weapons presentation."_

"_Thanks," replied Tony before moving on to shake hands with their Afghanistan allies, exchanging greetings in their native language, displaying his genius._

"Should have known that Stark can speak other languages," said a chuckling Clint only to get smacked in the head by his partner. "Oww," he groaned, rubbing his head while glaring at her. She just smirked at him. 'When was he ever going to learn?' she thought to herself.

_The scene changed once again, this time to a beautiful backdrop of high standing mountains that outlined the desert floor that Tony stood in front of._

"_Is it better to be feared or respected?" he asked rhetorically to the people watching the weapons demo. "I say, is it too much to ask for both? _

"_With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark Industries' Freedom Line." He placed his hands into his pants pockets. "It's the first missile system to incorporate our proprietary repulsor technology. _

"_They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how Dad did it. That's how America does it. And it's worked out pretty well so far." The screen swept back to show everyone watching the presentation and the weapon itself in the corner. _

"_Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even want to come out of their caves."_

"That's a great speech," said Bruce. "You think he came up with it on the spot?"

Fury gave a sharp nod. " Knowing, Stark," he said, "he probably didn't. He likes to do things last minute."

_With a wave of his hand, the attention was taken off him and placed on the missile as it came to life, rising from its resting position. _

_The first missile was launched into the air. The out shell of the thing dispersed as smaller, faster missiles were released from the frame._

_Going back to Tony, he said as he stood tall, "For your consideration, the Jericho." Slowly as he raised his arms, the missiles hit the ground and for a second, the explosion was blue. The series of missiles were so powerful that it carried a violent wind of dust over to them, nocking Tony off balance and hats off of army personal._

All those watch couldn't help but gape at the outcome. If that was what one of his probably very _old_ ideas could do, no one in the room wanted to know what his resent thoughts on weapons were.

Fury thoughts were slightly darker than the other. To imagine Tony Stark as an enemy of SHIELD, it would be catastrophic. They wouldn't last very long.

_Tony was opening a large metal box that cold air escaped from. A min bar raised to the top and Tony picked up a glass._

"_I'll be throwing one of these in with every purchase of 500 million or more." Raising his glass he said, "To peace!"_

_Something made a buzzing sound. _

At first people looked around the room, thinking, maybe it was a cell phone, but why would there be a cell phone on here. You weren't supposed to have them on the heilcarrier. No outside contact aloud. It was a safety thing.

_Tony lifted up his hand holding a sleek looking, black cell phone._

"Oh," said many of the people in the room. They should have realized it was coming from the TV. Only Stark had a cell phone on board and that cell phone was on him.

_A picture of Stane appeared on the screen._

"_**Tony,"**__ he said._

"_Obie, what are you doing up?" replied Tony._

"_**Oh, I couldn't sleep till I found out how it went. How'd it go?"**_

"_It went great. Looks like it's gonna be an early Christmas."_

"_**Hey! Way to go, my boy!"**__ he exclaimed. __**"I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"**_

Those who knew about Stane and what he did growled. They all hated that man. Sure, the majority their didn't really care for Tony too much, but Obadiah had killed innocents in his attempt for power.

_Tony walked over to the Humvee he would be riding in. a soldier held open the door for him._

"_Why aren't you wearing those pajamas I got you?" he asked._

"_**Good night, Tony,"**__ said Stane._

_Stane hung up and Tony flipped the phone shut before sliding into the vehicle._

_As the soldier holding it open slammed it shut, Rhodey came over saying, "Hey, Tony."_

"_I'm sorry," interrupted Tony, tossing his arm out the window and looking at Rhodes, "this is the "fun-vee." The "hum-drum-vee" is back there."_

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"_Nice job," said the Colonel._

"_See you back at base," replied Tony before tucking himself back into the Humvee._

_Rhodey patted the side of the vehicle before walking off._

_Soon they were driving down the dusty road listening to ACDC Back in Black. _

Everyone in the room held their breath, they knew what was about to come.

_The car in the front exploded._

_The scene changed to how Tony strapped to a bench being operated on. Everything was flashing and Tony was screaming and thrashing around. There was a hole in his chest. Someone lowered a metal something into his chest. It looked almost like a rusty version of the arc reactor sitting in Tony's chest._

_Finally they placed a cloth over his mouth and everything was black._

"Good, god," said a voice from the door. Everyone whipped around to see Agent Coulson standing there. "What the hell are you watching?" he asked, looking rather confused as to what he just saw. He was just coming to give Fury an update on what was happening, but it looked like it would end up as more than just that.

"Agent Coulson," said Fury standing up. "Come sit. You might as well watch this with us. As for what we are watch, this is a move on Stark himself. Don't ask how or where we got it, I don't know, but we decided to watch due to the fact that we know next to nothing on Stark."

Phil nodded slowly, then looked back to the now black and frozen screen. "So what the hell was just that?"

"Our best guess," said Natasha, "would be that, that right there was how Tony got that arc reactor in his chest, but I don't think that was the real deal. Probably just something they got someone to whip up to keep Stark alive."

Coulson nodded and walked over to the table, taking a set between Fury and Natasha.

"So," he said, " What's happened so far?"

* * *

**So yeah! Finally another chapter! I hoped you guys like it! I made it longer than the others! Yay!**

**Tell me what you thought of it and please review and tell me your ideas for the story if you have any!**

**Also, to any of you reading this fanfiction who are beta's, if you would like to beta this story, please, PM me and we can talk. I would love to have someone to help me with this!**

**Happy reading!**

**P.S. – Also, to anyone who reads this and is like "What the fuck, but he's married!" when they read the drunk, airplane scene, I have always thought that even if Tony was married, he used to be a player and, come on, I have never expected any guy to not at least look at other girls. Sure, I hate it, but it's the whole "you can look, but you can't touch thing." Would you really expect Tony not to get drunk and look at other women? If so, watch Iron Man 2. Just clearing up any confusion if there is any!**


	5. In The Cave

Phil sat, shaking his head. He, of course, knew Tony had been through some hard things in life, but torture was not one of them. The man certainly did not act like a victim. He was still Tony Stark, the man with everything.

"Quiet!" exclaimed Fury from his seat. "Let's get back to the movie."

He picked up the remote in front of him and clicked play.

On screen the image on Tony Stark dressed as a hobo became clear.

Many raised an eyebrow. No one had ever really seen Tony dressed in anything that was…well, expensive.

_Tony's eyes snapped open. His breath was slightly labored before he coughed and reached up to feel to small tube placed up his nose. Pulling it out, he gasped at how long it was._

"That's just gross," said Clint from his same seat beside Natasha.

Bruce smirked at him. "It's how it should be. You want him to breath."

_Tony reached up to pull the tape off his nose after successfully getting the tube out. Looking over to his left, he saw a cup. Slowly, he stretched out his arm to try and grab it only for him to knock it on the ground._

_He coughed, still looking over at the table. There was a bottle there still._

_He slowly started to reach over with his other arm._

_The scene changed to that of a man standing in front of a very poor mirror, shaving._

"He must be a prisoner as well," said Steve softly. If you listened closely, you could hear just a hint of worry in his voice. What it was for…well, the others didn't know yet.

_Tony seemed to have seen the man, but still reached for the bottle only to be stop be something connected to him._

"_I wouldn't do that if I were you," said the man in front of the mirror._

_Tony stopped and slowly turned back on his back, looking to the right to see what had stopped him._

"A battery?" gasped Natasha as she and the others around her looked rather concerned.

_Tony grasped a wire and then frantically grasped at his chest before ripping the bandages away from the spot._

_With labored, panicked breaths he uncovered the area only to see a devise sitting in his chest. _

"Good, god," said both Bruce and Agent Coulson.

"There's rust on the metal," stated Clint.

Everyone looked at least slightly horrified.

The time in the movie seemed to change as the unknown man cooked…something by a small fire.

_Tony was sitting on his bench, looking at the rust bucket in his chest with a small mirror._

"_What the hell did you do to me?" he asked his new cave mate._

"_What I did?" said the man before chuckling slightly. "What I did is to save your life. I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there's a lot left and it's headed into you atrial septum." The man put down the pot._

Clint, Steve and Thor turned to Bruce with questioning looks.

"What is this atrial septum the strange man speaks of?" asked Thor in his demanding, loud voice.

Bruce sighed before pushing up his glasses. "It's basically a wall of tissue that separates the right and left atria of the heart."

Well, Clint knew what Bruce was talking about, Steve not as much, but enough to understand. Thor though, Thor had no clue what Bruce was talking about. Tissue? Right and left atria? The only thing he knew was it had to do with the heart, but still, he nodded like he knew what Bruce was talking about.

_Tony was still sitting looking glum, the _thing_ still visible through the unzipped jacket._

"_Here," said the man, "want to see?" The man picked up a small glass jar and shook it around a bit. "I have a souvenir," he taunted. "Take a look." He tossed it lightly to Tony who easily caught it. _

Bruce tensed at the taunting tone of the strangers' voice. He did consider Tony a friend.

_As Tony looked at the shrapnel that was once in his body, the man continued on. "I've seen many wounds like that in my village. We call them the walking dead"_**  
**

"Hay!" shout Clint somewhat trying to lighten the atmosphere. He hated the feeling that lingered in the air. That tense feeling that seems like you can cut into the air with a butter knife. "That's one of my favorite TV shows!"

Instead of it doing what he wanted, he just got another slap from the woman beside him.

"_-because it takes about a week for the barbs to reach the vital organs."_

"_What is this?" interrupted a very drained Tony._

"_That is an electromagnet, hooked up to a car battery,"_

There were many grumbles throughout the room at just the thought of someone ever being hooked up to a _car battery._

"_-and it's keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart." The man turned back to cooking their so called dinner._

_Tony shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably before zipping up the jacket, covering the electromagnet. Looking up in a corner of the room, he saw a video camera with a red light moving around._

_The man looked back to where the billionaire was looking. "That's right," he said. "Smile."_

Phil sighed harshly. "Why does this man have to be so patronizing?" The only answers he got back where half-hearted shrugs from glum looking faces.

"_We met once, you know," continued the man in a different, less sarcastic tone of voice, "at a technical conference in Bern."_

"_I don't remember," muttered Tony, still looking to the side, but not at the camera anymore._

"_No, you wouldn't. If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits."_

Everyone in the room, but Phil, snuck a glance at Steve, waiting for him to say something, but the super soldier had nothing to say. After seeing what Stark had went through just minutes before, he couldn't really form a sentence. He just kept thinking about all those things he said to the man. He felt shame course through his veins. Who was he to say such thing about a guy he didn't even know?

"_Where are we?" asked Tony, not caring for the small talk the man was attempting to create._

_Before the man could answer there was a ping of metal on metal at the door and a voice that spoke a foreign language. _

"_Come on, stand up," whispered the man to Tony, making a hand motion for Stark to stand as he moved close to the genius. "Stand up!" He grabbed Tony's arm as he stood. "Just do as I do," he basically hissed._

"_Come on, put your hands up."_

_The men outside of the door swung it open, a group of them walked in with large guns._

_Tony looked disturbed at what he was seeing. "Those are my guns," he said. "How did they get my guns?"_

Fury and Coulson shared a look. They did not know that the terrorists had Stark weapons.

"_Do you understand me? Do as I do."_

_A bigger man without a large gun, only a heavy pistol on his belt walked to the front and lifted his arms as if in greeting a friend. He began to speak in one of the many languages of the Middle East._

_The terrorist placed his hands down and started to walk forward still speaking in his native tongue. After he said what he wanted, he nodded to the man._

_Turning his head slightly to Tony, he said, "He says, 'Welcome, Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America."_

Thor and Steve raised their eyebrows, not knowing what to say.

Thor did not think that Tony was a murderer, a bit eccentric, yes, but not bad, not a murderer. He could not see this sarcastic, yet caring man being a murderer, but, yet again, he could not see his brother betraying him.

Steve did not know what to think. He knew that Tony did not sell his weapons to the terrorists, they all heard the surprise in Starks voice, but still, he was the one to invent them, to build them. His company sold them. Maybe, there was someone in there, close to Tony or someone who deals with the shipment of supplies that sells them under the table.

_Once again the terrorist spoke and the man translated. "He is honored."_

_And again the terrorist spoke and the man translated. "He wants you to build the missile. The Jericho missile that you demonstrated."_

_The terrorist hand a piece of rolled paper to the man to show Tony. "This one," he said._

_Tony looked at the paper, then back to the terrorists. "I refuse," he said defiantly._

"No!" yelped everyone in the room, almost jumping to their feet.

The next thing they knew was that Tony's head was being shoved into a water trough and the electromagnet in his chest was shocking him.

"_Tony!" exclaimed a woman's voice._

"He hears Mrs. Stark?" questioned Steve, flexing his tight fingers, trying not to break the arms of his chair. There was no such luck with Thor; he had already broken the arms off.

"It appears so," answered Fury in his gruff voice.

Phil looked across the table to where Bruce Banner was sitting. He stiffened seeing the green tint in the man's skin.

Speaking with concern for Bruce, he asked, "Do you need a drink, Dr. Banner? Or a small break?"

Bruce looked at Phil and gave the Agent a tight smile. "Water would be lovely, but we should continue on so we can get this over with."

With a small nod, Phil picked up the water pitcher in front of him and filled a glass half full before sliding it over to Bruce.

"Thank you," nodded Bruce before downing the glass in a couple of gulps. Placing the glass back on the table, he turned to Fury and nodded. "Let's continue, shall we?"

_Tony was being pushed and pulled through a tunnel with a bag over his head. He was lead outside where the fat, lead terrorist gave an order to one of the men holding Tony._

_The guy to Tony's right ripped the bag off of Starks head, blinding him with the bright sun._

_Looking around, Tony saw stacks upon stacks of weapons under camouflage tents. _

_Suddenly he was pushed by a hunch man to follow the "leader", but that did not break his gaze from the weapons. _

_Walking forward, his cave mate followed after him._

_As Tony got closer, he saw the _Stark Industries_ label on all of the weapons._

The group stared at the screen baffled and disgusted.

"Well," said Fury slowly. "I can see how and why Stark no longer makes weapons."

"You didn't have any idea about this?" questioned Bruce facing the head of SHIELD. "I thought organizations like SHIELD were supposed to know everything."

Natasha and Fury glared at the doctor, but he did not back down like most people would. He had to deal with more than just pissed off super agents. Besides, it's not like they could kill him.

"Not everything," growled Fury lowly.

Natasha explained more. "We knew that there had been weapons created by _Stark Industries_ dealt under the table, but we did not know there were so many to just one group of terrorists." A thoughtful and hard…well, harder, look past over her face. "It makes me wonder how many arms the culprits were able to sell to these bastards."

_The "leader" turned to Stark and the man, saying something._

_Again, the man translated for Tony. "He wants to know what you think."_

_Tony looked at the terrorist standing in front of him and said, "I think you got a lot of my weapons."_

_Again, the terrorist spoke and the man from the cave translated. "He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile. He wants you to make the list of materials. He say for you to start working immediately and when you're done, he will set you free."_

_The terrorist held out his hand for Tony._

"Oh man!" yelled Clint, jumping from his chair slightly. "Don't do it!"

"Shut up!" bellowed everyone else in the room. They _really_ just want to get through this and everyone was getting annoyed with the interruptions.

_Tony grasped the terrorist's hand in a firm grip, a tight smile placed on his face._

Shouts were heard from outside the room getting curious looks from passerby's, but the passerby's did not want to get in trouble and so they continued on, wondering what was up and if they would ever find out. Not likely.

"_No, he won't," said Tony._

"_No, he won't," agreed the man._

_Later on in the cave, Tony sat beside a fire, trying to keep warm._

"_I'm sure they're looking for you, Stark," said the man from behind him. "But they will never find you in these mountains." He sat down on the opposite side of the fire._

"_Look, what you just saw, that is your legacy, Stark. Your life's work, in the hands of those murderers. Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark? Or are you going to do something about it?"_

"What is this man's deal?" asked a pissy Clint, crossing his arms. "Does he get off on this?"

Beside him, Natasha side at how stupid her partner could be at times. "No, idiot," she seethed. "That guys getting Tony riled up and determined."

"Oh…"

_Suddenly, Tony spoke up. "Why should I do anything? They're going to kill me, you, either way. And if they don't, I'll probably be dead in a week."_

"_Well then, this is a very important week for you isn't it?"_

_A bunch of men from the terrorist group were being ordered around, carrying and placing many weapons and work equipment into the cave._

"_If this is going to be my work station, I want it well-lit. I want these up," demanded Tony, ordering everyone around as his cave mate translated for him rapidly. "I need welding gear. I don't care if it's acetylene or propane. I need a soldering station. I need helmets. I'm gonna need goggles. I would like a smelting cup. I need two sets of precision tools."_

"Well, then…" trailed off Steve. "That's a lot."

Many nodded, but Coulson said, "For what he made in there, I'm surprised he didn't need more!"

_Tony was slowly unscrewing the top from one of the many missiles. As he did this, not taking his eyes from his work, he asked the man beside him, "How many languages do you speak?"_

"_A lot. But apparently, not enough for this place." Tony chuckled very softly. "They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian."_

Natasha gave the TV one of her meanest glares and those around her swore that the air got hotter as they uncomfortably tried to discreetly move away from her.

_Tony popped of the top of the missile and reached inside, dragging out the core of it._

"_Who are these people?" he asked, placing what he had in his hands on the bench._

"_They are your loyal customers, sir. They call themselves the Ten Rings."_

_The terrorists were watching the camera, watching them work._

_The unknown man crouched down beside Tony and said, "You know, we might be more productive if you include me in the planning process."_

"Just maybe," said Clint, who, once again, got glares from everyone else in the room.

"_Yeah-hu," said Tony before slamming his right triceps onto the top of one of the missiles. Reaching inside, he pulled out a piece of it and set it on the table before going at the piece._

_After he pulled something off of the device he said, "Okay, we don't need this," and tossed the bigger piece that he got the smaller piece from over his shoulder._

"What is he doing?" asked Steve, leaning forward in his seat.

"We don't know," answered Fury, giving Steve the stink eye for interrupting.

"_What is that?"_

_With some long-nose pliers, Tony held up a small piece of something. "That's palladium, 0.15 grams. We need at least 1.6, so why don't you go break down the other 11?_

_Back to the terrorist watching the two work, they were speaking in one of the many languages of the Ten Rings._

"_What's he doing?" _

"_Working."_

_Tony was pressing rustic red sand like stuff into a small bowl and soon the man in the cave with him was taking something out of the hot fire._

"_Careful," said Tony. "Careful, we only get one shot at this."_

"_Relax. I have steady hands. Why do you think you're still alive?"_

_Slowly, they walked to the work bench. Tony dropped the heavy battery down on the table as his accomplice steadily pored what was in the small iron cup into a tiny circle._

"_What do I call you?" Tony asked._

"Finally!" shouted Clint, throwing his hands up in the air. "I thought I was going to have to call him the accomplice forever!"

Instead of getting slapped or the stink eye like usual, he got small chuckles from everyone in the room.

"_My name is Yinsen."_

"_Yinsen. Nice to meet you."_

_Yinsen stopped poring the palladium having pored it all into the tiny ring. "Nice to meet you, too," he said as he carried the small bowl of metal away._

_Slowly and steadily, Tony raised the ring of palladium and gently placed it on the piece he had in his hands._

_Tony was wielding copper wire to a frame like thing, steadily._

_Later on, Tony was seen turning on something that glowed a faint blue._

"Wow…" whispered a stunned Bruce. "It's one thing to know that he created the miniaturized arc reactor in a cave, but another thing all together to see it happen…"

Of course, the others didn't really have the same fascination as the good doctor, but they did find it amazing. They just didn't realize how impossible that feat should have been.

_Yinsen walked up behind him. "Wow," he said. "That doesn't look like a Jericho missile."_

"_That's because it's a miniaturized arc reactor," Tony explained quietly. "I got a big one powering my factory at home. It should keep the shrapnel out of my heart."_

"_But what could it generate?" asked a curious Yinsen._

"_If my math is right and it always is,"_

There were snorts from all over the room at just how confident Tony was in his self, but they could not deny that Tony was _almost_ always right. He had to be wrong with something's.

"_-three gigajoules per second."_

Bruce looked astonished. "That could run his heart for 50 lifetimes!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"_That could run your heart for 50 lifetimes," said Yinsen, looking at Tony._

Clint chuckled at Bruce. "You don't need to be a copycat, Doc," he said light heartedly.

Bruce smiled back at the archer. "That didn't happen to be something I knew," he said in the same jest as Clint.

"_Yeah," said Tony. "Or something big for 15 minutes."_

_With that, Tony was next seen with a bunch of papers in hand. He placed them on a table and turned on the light that was beside it._

_Yinsen picked up the papers, flipping through them._

"_This is our ticket out of here," explained Tony to his new friend._

"_What is it?" asked a confused Yinsen._

"_Flatten them out and look," said Tony before reaching forward and doing it himself._

_There was a picture of a metal man._

"Oh, wow," said everyone in the room along with Yinsen on the screen.

"_Impressive."_

_Outside it was snowing. A small group of the terrorist's huddled beside a fire._

_Inside the caves, more terrorists were watching the two men. The one they knew to be Tony, stood up with a glowing circle in his chest._

"You know," said Natasha. "I don't think anyone but Pepper has actually seen that thing at the same time as it being inside his chest, you know? Hell, I don't think many people have ever seen the thing in general!"

The only ones who nodded with certainty were Bruce, Phil and Fury. The others just nodded because they didn't exactly know what the hell to say. It was way too confusing.

_Tony rolled a pair of dice on a board that held nuts and those protector things._**  
**

"_Good," said Yinsen after Tony's roll. Tony picked up a couple of nuts and brought them over to the over side. "Good roll. Good roll."_

"_You still haven't told me where you're from," said Tony, opening an old tea pot._

_As Yinsen rolled the dice around in his hand, he said, "I'm from a small town called Gulmira. It's actually a nice place."_

"_Got a family?"_

"_Yes, and I will see them when I leave here. And you, Stark? Are you not married to the lovely Pepper Pots or shall I say Pepper Stark?"_

_Tony smiled slight at the mention of Pepper's name._

Clint laughed. "He looks so dopy!" he exclaimed.

Natasha slapped him in the back of the head. "You idiot!" she exclaimed before whispering, "He looks like a man in love." It didn't matter that she had tried to say it quietly enough so no one could hear, Clint did.

"What was that?" taunted a joking Clint, holding a hand to his ear. "You know what a man in love looks like?"

Natasha glared at him fiercely before punching him hard across the face sending the archer spilling to the floor holding on to his rapidly purpling cheek.

"Jackass," muttered the pissed Black Widow.

Clint looked up into the face of the terrifying woman before him as he climbed into his chair once again, a slow, small smile spreading across his face. He could see the barest hint of a smile on her full lips.

"_Yes," said Tony._

"_Any children?" asked Yinsen, raising an eyebrow at his friend. Clutching _

_Tony sighed almost longingly. "No," he breathed._

"_But you want them," said Yinsen, understanding Tony's longing sigh._

"_I guess," said the genius._

"Tony wants to be a dad?" said Clint quietly and confused.

"I suppose," said an equally quite Fury. He never really picture Tony as someone who yearned for a child.

"_Only guess?"_

"_Well, I mean, I would probably suck with them and just…be a really bad dad. I mean, so many people tell me that I can't even take care of myself let alone would I ever be able to take care of _children_ and really, I agree with them. I wouldn't know what to do."_

_Yinsen smiled at the younger man across from him. "No parent knows what to do even if it is their second or even _fifth_ child. It just happens."_

_Tony just smiled at Yinsen and the conversation was dropped._

The room was stunned into silence. No one knew what to say. Of course, no one but Phil and Natasha _really_ knew Tony. Bruce knew Tony better than the others did and given some thought, he thought the man had the potential to be a great dad, but he didn't exactly give the others the best impression of just a person, someone you work with let alone someone who could be a capable, loving father.

_Outside of the prisoner cave, the "leader" and a couple of men stopped by to check on Yinsen and Tony._

_The "leader" opened the tiny slide window thing. Inside he saw the two working quietly._

_Satisfied, he closed the latch and turned back around, walking off with the others._

_Slowly, the screen went over a work bench full of things, bits and pieces of the suit. At the end of the table, Tony stood, wielding something._

_Inside the camera room, the terrorist were talking. The "leader" held a picture of the Jericho missile._

"_It doesn't look anything like the picture," he said in his native tongue._

"_Maybe it's been modified," said the man to the right of him._

"_The tail is wrong."_

_An imposing bald man with a heavy ring stood in front of the TV screens, looking at the video footage._

_Tony was sitting on one of the benches with something strapped to his leg. Yinsen stood behind a computer across the table from Tony._

_The imposing bald man glared at the screen._

"You think that's the actual leader of the Ten Rings?" asked Steve, looking around at the people gathered.

"Yes," said Natasha immediately. She had been around to many terrorist to not think that. The bald man just had that vibe.

_A man slammed open the little window hole, shouting at the two inside._

_Tony looked up from his wielding and turned the nozzle off._

_The man at the door shut the hatch thing and the door was opened by a couple of men with even more outside._

_Both prisoners placed their hands on their heads as the bigger man previously thought to be the "leader" walked in with many more following._

_Out of the group and through the middle walked in the bald man, the really leader._

"_Relax," he said in English as he nodded to Tony._

_Slowly, both Tony and Yinsen put their arms down, sharing a confused look._

_The bald man walked up to Tony and pulled his shirt down to see the glowing arc reactor. "The bow and arrow," he said, "once was the pinnacle of weapons technology." Clint huffed, offended and crossed his arms over his chest. Natasha snickered at him. "It allowed the great Genghis Khan to rule from the Pacific to the Ukraine." He, the bald leader, walked over to one of the benches and picked something up. "An empire twice the size of Alexander the Great and four times the size of the Roman Empire." He picked up the plans to the suit. "But today, whoever holds the latest Stark weapons rules these lands." He put down the plans, not spreading them out. "And soon," he continued as he looked over his shoulder at Tony, "it will be my turn." Slowly he walked back over to stand in front of the weapons developer._

_The bald man started to speak in what was presumed, his native tongue. "Why have you failed me?"_

"_We're working," answered Yinsen. "Diligently."_

_The bald man turned and started to walk towards Yinsen. "I let you live. This is how you repay me?"_

"_It's very complex," said Yinsen nervously. "He's trying very hard."_

_The bald man did not care for what Yinsen was saying. He turned to his men and said, "On his knees."_

_Two men grabbed Yinsen, pushing him to his knees in front of the iron block._

_The bald man had walked over to the fire, playing with it as he said, still in his native language, "You think I'm a fool? I'll get the truth."_

"_We're both working," Yinsen said from his knees._

_The man turned around slowly, holding the iron tool used to pick things up from fires. In the pinchers of the tool was a burning, stemming orang piece of coal. He had a sadistic look about his face._

"_Open your mouth," he said darkly._

_The bald man turned Yinsen's head to the side and slowly Yinsen was bent down to put his head on the iron block. "You think I'm a fool?" he asked for the second time. "What's going on? Tell me the truth." He held the coal level with Yinsen's face. Tony looked on quietly from his place._

"_He's building your Jericho," said Yinsen._

_They repeated this many time, "Tell me the truth." "He's building your Jericho."_

_Slowly, the bald guy was bringing the piece of coal closer and closer to Yinsen's face._

"_What do you want?" asked Tony as he stepped forward. "A delivery date?"_

_The men started to yell at Tony, raising their guns, ready to fire._

_Tony stopped and raised his hands, "Jesus."_

"_I need him," Tony said strongly, looking back to the bald headed leader. "Good assistant."_

_The bald man looked at Tony and then placed the sizzling coal on the iron block next to Yinsen's face._

Everyone in the room seemed to let out a breath of relief. That was close. Thank God for Tony.

"_You have till tomorrow to assemble my missile." He tossed the metal tongs to the side and walked out with his group of armed men._

Once again, the people in the room seemed to tense up.

Clint's head fell back as he asked rhetorically, "When the fuck is this movie going to give us a damn break!"

* * *

**AN: OH MY GOD! I'M BACK! Sorry about the super long wait, we went a month without internet and I have been SO busy with my horse and work that this is the only chapter I have ready to go. The up side is that it's a long one!**

**Thank you to everyone who followed and reviewed. I would also love to give a big thank you to my wonderful new beta **_YouWILLbealright_**. You're too good to me.**

**I can't tell you when the next chapter will be up, I'm **_**really**_** busy. I'll try and get one up before the end of August.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Authors Note:**

**I AM SO SORRY EVERYONE! I know I promised to have the next chapter up by the end of August, but I just have the biggest case of writer's block EVER for this story. But, while trying to write another chapter of The Unknown, I have come up with another idea. It's a Merlin fanfiction based off the BBC TV show. It's another characters watch the series type thing with a twist. I was thinking of posting it, but I would really like a beta. If any of you really love the Merlin series and would like to beta, please, PM me. I really need someone to tell me if I am being to Mary Sue with it.**

**With deep apologies and love**

**The Wind Whispers To Me **


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